Sunday, December 31, 2006

One for the books

Where the hell did 2006 go?

Well, a good quarter of it was spent in hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and at home. But we’ll get to that in a second.

This was a year of tremendous personal highs and lows for me. On the bad side, I almost lost my father twice and I spent months driving back and forth between my home and my parents’ home trying to help my parents out while my son asked every night when I was coming home. My son was critically ill and required a stay in the ICU and surgery. I was offered a dream job but turned it down because I couldn’t juggle the job and my family (not to mention that the pay sucked). I lost a friendship that meant a lot to me.

But ya know, I’ve never been one to dwell on the negative for long. There were so many great things that happened this year:

*First “real” family vacation to Disney World with our good friends Flash, Debbie, and their kids*My second trip to Vegas on Valentine’s Day week that was a total blast*Going to Boston for the PIM reunion and getting to spend time with some of the most amazing ladies in the world*Mer coming to visit me with her son and how much fun we had*Getting my LEED certification and completing my second LEED project (no certifications yet, though!)*Reconnecting with my friends at work after being gone for over a year and realizing how important they are to me*Completing my first two 10K races, with the second one being the scariest and best one yet*Managing to keep the 50 pounds I’ve lost off – something I never thought I’d be able to do*Strengthening my relationships with my parents and siblings*Starting this blog and rediscovering how much I love to write (not to mention the savings on the therapy bills!)*Coming to a place of peace in terms of my relationship with my Out Laws and realizing that they don’t define my marriage

And probably the best parts:

*Celebrating 10 years of marriage with my soulmate (even though his piles of dirty socks make me a little nuts)*Having an adorable, happy, healthy son again (ditto on the piles of dirty socks, but the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree)*The health and happiness of my family, especially my parents who mean the world to me*My friends – the new ones, the old ones, blogging friends, drinking friends, you all know who you are!*Rediscovering myself and reclaiming myself as ME – not a mom, not a wife, not as an employee, but an individual who loves life and loves to laugh and being a girly girl and a badass at the same time

So what will 2007 bring for me? Stay tuned, but I suspect there will be plenty of debauchery. And maybe some babies. And maybe some baby debauchery. I do know that there will be some traveling, some friends coming from far away, and of course my daily travails with EPOD and eye cream.

To all of y’all – thank you. Thank you for all the support and the laughs and the hugs this year. And I hope everyone has a wonderful, prosperous New Year full of laughs and love.

PIM's are my Psycho Internet Mom friends...people I met about 5 years ago on a bulletin board on Babycenter.com. Click on the PIM's category on the right to see some posts about them. A really great group of girls who know how to throw down.

LEED is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design - it's a program run by the U.S. Green Building Council that basically encourages more environmentally friendly design in new construction and renovations. In other words, it's tree-hugging bullshit but I happen to be one of the few "experts" in this area in the region (not to mention the only female contractor in this state to have the accreditation as of last year). I'd bore you with more details (if I haven't already), but you can check out my link on the right to the U.S. Green Building Council if you want more info.